If anything, our tendency to fantasize about having super powers has only escalated as technology has improved. It's allowed us to manipulate our environment in ways we could never have imagined mere centuries ago.

Even the origin and purpose of those powers has changed. In ancient times people attributed amazing powers to gods/devils, and those who were chosen by them. With technology, many of the feats from those old stories are accessible to anyone, with no end of the possibilities in sight. Given a world on the brink of bowing to us where once we bowed to it, it's not surprising our stories are now filled with people possessing incredible powers that answer to no one but themselves.

Because if we imagine what it would be like to have super powers we might conceive of yet another feasible way to get them. So far we have X-ray vision, interplanetary communication, pointing at people and killing them, flight that can reach other countries and escape the Earth, and the power to wipe ourselves out in ten thousand washes of bright light and invisible death.

And by discussing the implications of such powers we can hopefully handle the day we get them. BTW, if you count manipulative psychology, charisma techniques and cultist indoctrination, we do have access to glamor powers. And by god can it be abused!

My answer: There are more than six billion of us on this tiny rock (closer to seven billion now, I think) and we all try as hard as we can to rise up above the masses, to be something more than just another human. In other words, a super-human.

That and escapism.

Writing a story is like building a creature from the bones up...except you have no idea what it's supposed to look like.

Hold on, wasn't there an article somewhere that spiders cannot get weird powers from radiation or soemthing like that? some biologists tropers can clear that up for me. Another thing that you may need to consider is that the real world is not a comic book, we are not protected by plot armor, physics can work for and against us and anyone can die but unlike the comic books (or medium for that matter), it doesn't matter how much demand there by fandom they won't comeback. We don't have Hero Insurance, biology will rear its ugly head on those with regenerating powers and humans can be real bastards but this time with superpowers.

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